(CNN) - If the Rev. John DeBonville could preach a sermon to lift the souls of churchgoers across America, his message would be simple:

Stop dressing so tacky for church.

DeBonville has heard about the “come as you are” approach to dressing down for Sunday service, but he says the Sabbath is getting too sloppy.

When he scans the pews of churches, DeBonville sees rows of people dressed in their Sunday worst. They saunter into church in baggy shorts, flip-flop sandals, tennis shoes and grubby T-shirts. Some even slide into the pews carrying coffee in plastic foam containers as if they’re going to Starbucks.

“It’s like some people decided to stop mowing the lawn and then decided to come to church,” says DeBonville, rector at the Church of the Good Shepard in Massachusetts. “No one dresses up for church anymore.”

Church leaders like DeBonville have harrumphed about declining dress standards for Sunday service for years, while others say God only cares what’s in someone’s heart.

But which side is right? What does the Bible actually say about dressing properly for church? And does Jesus provide fashion advice anywhere? Wasn’t he a homeless, Galilean peasant who wore flip-flops?

The answers to these questions are not as easy as they may seem. The Bible sends mixed messages about the concept of wearing your Sunday best. And when pastors, parishioners and religious scholars were asked the same questions, they couldn’t agree, either.

Wearing ties on first dates

There was one point on which both sides did agree: People are dressing sloppier everywhere, not just church.

Or take a walk outside and you’ll be greeted by teenagers slouching around with their jeans sagging over the butt-cheeks.

Even corporate America isn’t immune. Casual Fridays has morphed into casual every day and even tech tycoons like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wear bland T-shirts during public presentations.

It’s a sharp departure from another era in America before the 1960s, when people wore suits, dresses and white gloves in public.

The Rev. Gerald Durley, a sharp-dressed civil rights activist in Atlanta, recalls taking his future wife, Muriel, on their first date. When he showed up at her house, her father opened the door, looked at him, and took him aside gravely, “Young man can I talk to you for a minute.”

Jennifer Fulwiler, who wrote an article for the National Catholic Register titled, “Why Don’t We Dress up Anymore,” says her great-grandfather would put on a coat and tie just to go grocery shopping.

The reasons why people stopped dressing up could fill a book. Yet Fulwiler offers one explanation that’s seldom mentioned – lack of gratitude.

Fulwiler’s revelation came one day as she watched scruffily dressed people board a plane. She flashed back to a black-and-white photo she had seen of her grandparents boarding a plane in the 1940s. Most of the passengers were dressed in suits and ties and dresses because air travel was such a privilege at the time.

“We dress up for what we’re grateful for,” she says. “We’re such a wealthy, spoiled culture that we feel like we have a right to fly on airplanes,” says Fulwiler, author of “Something Other than God,” which details her journey from atheism to Christianity.

Church is like air travel now – it’s no longer a big deal because people have lost their sense of awe before God, Fulwiler says.

Yet some of these same people who say it doesn’t matter how you dress for church would change their tune if they were invited to another event, Fulwiler says.

“If you had the opportunity to meet the Queen of England, you wouldn’t show up in at Windsor Castle wearing jeans and a T-shirt,” she says.

The church customer is always king

Shouldn’t people have that same reverential attitude when they show up at church to meet God, some ask? After all, doesn’t your dress reveal the importance you attach to an occasion?

That sentiment, however, is seen as hopelessly old school in many popular megachurches across America. Casual Fridays has morphed into casual Sundays.

And many of the popular megachurch pastors are middle-aged men who bound onto the stage each Sunday dressed in skinny jeans, untucked Banana Republic shirts, and backed by in-house Christian rock bands. They’ve perfected a “seeker-friendly” approach to church that gets rid of the old formal worship style with its stuffy dress codes.

But there’s a danger in making people too comfortable in their clothes on Sunday morning, says Constance M. Cherry, an international lecturer on worship and a hymn writer.

Some churches have embraced a business-oriented “the customer is always right” approach to worship that places individual comfort at the center of Sunday service, says Cherry, author of“Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services.”

“Many young people and boomers judge the value of worship service based on personal satisfaction,” Cherry says. “If I get to wear flip-flops to Wal-Mart, then I get to wear flip-flops to church. If I get to carry coffee to work, I get to carry coffee to church. They’re being told that come as you are means that God wants you to be comfortable.”

What the Bible says

The Bible says that’s not true – people had to prepare themselves internally and externally for worship.

In the Old Testament, Jewish people didn’t just “come as they are” to the temple in Jerusalem. They had to undergo purification rituals and bathe in pools before they could enter the temple, says Cherry, who is also a professor of worship at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Both Old and New Testaments suggest that people should not approach God in a casual manner, Cherry says. Psalms 24 urges the faithful to “ascend the hill of the Lord …with clean hands and pure hearts.”

When Jesus taught in the synagogues, he also observed the rules and decorum of being in God’s house, Cherry says.

Cherry isn’t calling for a restoration of first-century cultural norms, such as women covering their hair in worship, or a rigid dress code. She says churches should meet people where they are, and make even the poorest person feel welcome.

She just says that preparation for worship should give less thought to people and more thought to the divine.

“There should be some sort of approach to God that will include certain steps to honor the God that is not our buddy but fully The Other,” she says.

Others back up Cherry’s call to keep the Sabbath special. Dressing up really makes a difference on Sunday, they say.

“It puts you in a different mindset,” says Tiffany Adams, a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who grew up wearing jeans in church. “It actually sets the Sabbath apart from every other day.”

And there are still pockets of church culture where no one has to persuade people to look sharp on Sunday.

The African-American church is one such place. Many of its members still insist on dressing up on Sunday because of the historical struggles of blacks. Sunday morning was often the only time in the week that a black person could assert their dignity, says Durley, the Atlanta civil rights activist who also is a retired Baptist pastor.

“On Sunday morning, when you put on your tie, your shirt and put your palms together and slicked down your hair, you were no longer the hired help, you were a trustee, a deacon or you chaired this board and you dressed accordingly,” Durley says.

What would Jesus wear?

There are others, though, who say God cares more about the person’s soul than their style. No one wears a bracelet today asking, “What would Jesus wear.” Clothes just weren’t important to Jesus or the early church, they claim.

The early church was anti-hierarchical and adopted a “come as you are” approach to worship, welcoming outcasts and the disenfranchised who often couldn’t dress in fine clothes, says Carl Raschke, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver.

Raschke cites Mark 12:38, where Jesus mocks the fine clothes worn by the Pharisees, a group of elite Jewish religious leaders of his day.

Others cite James 2:2-4, where the writer of the New Testament book criticizes early Christians for discriminating against poor people visiting the church in dirty clothes and favoring the man “wearing a gold ring and fine clothes.”

“Adopting a dress code would not only be suicidal for American Christians who are swimming against the stream of casual secularism, it would be antithetical to what Christianity sees increasingly as its abiding mission – to reach those who are marginalized and ‘don’t fit in,’ ‘’ Raschke says.

“The casualness of Sunday church attire has gone too far,” says DeBonville, the pastor of the Massachusetts church. “It’s about respect and honoring God.”

When DeBonville looks across the scruffy fashion landscape of America, he sees only one profession that’s holding the line against tacky dress.

It’s not the preachers or priests, though. These people belong to another profession whose members aren’t exactly known for respect and honoring God.

“The last ones wearing shirt and ties are the politicians,” DeBonville says.

Easter is supposed to be about the renewal of hope, but when asked if the spread of sloppy Sabbath can get any worse, DeBonville sounds gloomy. Yoga pants in the pews, pajamas near the altar – will everyone soon start showing up at church dressed like “the Dude” in the film, “The Big Lebowski.”

Nothing would surprise DeBonville anymore.

“There’s growing casualness everywhere,” he says. “I don’t know if it can get much worse.”

soundoff(1,006 Responses)

I live near a few urban churches. It looks like a gathering of clowns with the ridiculous zoot suits and silly hats. Pretty sure their god would prefer they show up in burlap sacks and give the money they wasted on their clown suits to charity.

Going to church isn't about putting on "fine" clothes, but as churchgoers we should all make the attempt to wash ourselves and wear the best that we have when we go to worship God. If the guy sitting next to me in the pew is all scruffy and wearing holes in his jeans and running shoes, I'm not going to condemn him. Maybe the guy is too poor to purchase a bar of soap or a disposable razor, and too poor to buy himself any fancy clothes. All I see is that a guy made a decision to attend a place where others go to worship God. The rest will take care of itself and that's all that matters.

So, yes, as they say, "Put on your Sunday best."

April 21, 2014 at 10:45 am |

whippstippler7

Interesting what you say, and what you didn't say. You say that you won't condemn him, which is awfully magnanimous of you. What you DIDN'T say was that you would talk with him, find out what's going on, and see if you can help him out. Wouldn't Jesus do that?

Yes, I agree with you on that. That's what would happen among the church congregants. As for my saying that I wouldn't condemn the guy, I was using that as a euphemism, notwithstanding the fact that I am woefully aware that many others would.

The church itself is insignificant to your god...it only matters to the people.
According to your god, he is everywhere. The churches themselves are only for men to feel like they belong. The churches themselves are not needed, and a surprising waste of money.

April 21, 2014 at 10:44 am |

whippstippler7

So, Vic – what about all of the thousands of generations of people who lived and died before your Jesus supposedly lived and died? Are they SOL? Do they go to your heaven? Or go to your hell? I mean, they couldn't believe in and accept Jesus as their saviour if they weren't aware of his existence, right?

Come to think of it, what about the natives in North America and South America? in the South Pacific? New Zealand? Australia? The far East? Scandinavia. The list goes on and one – people there would have had no knowledge of Jesus – so what happened to them? Are they all burning in Hell forever?

To the best of my knowledge, whoever died in faith in God before, the Lord Jesus Christ will call into His Salvation along with Christians. And, Apostle Paul did address the gentiles who were not under the Law, that whatever was natural to them was their Law in believing in God, since the Jews were still the chosen people by God to carryout His messages.

April 21, 2014 at 11:02 am |

whippstippler7

So what does that mean in practical terms? "whoever died in faith in God before, the Lord Jesus Christ will call into His Salvation along with Christians." Natives living in the South Pacific wouldn't have had any knowledge of the Christian God, so how could they have "faith in God"? Or does it mean as long as they had some belief in some god they were okay?

Missionaries are how you can tell Christianity has nothing to do with a real god. A real god wouldn't want or need it's flawed creations spreading it's message. A real god would have ensured that everyone alive already had access.

As a solitary Pagan, I seldom need to worry about anyone else judging what I wear to "church". My daily devotional practice usually takes place just after I get into bed at night, so I'm either in PJs or naked. When I mark a holy day or other occasion, it's usually just me in front of my altar, and again, I'm generally naked or if it's too cold for that I'm in a robe.

On the rare occasion that I circle with other Pagans, dress is generally dictated by the host of the gathering (and their particular flavor of Paganism) and can range from skyclad (naked) to full on ceremonial garb, which for me is generally a gown with a bodice and a cloak.

Regardless, I think that if you're dressing to impress the people around you, your mind isn't in the right place. If you're dressing to avoid criticism, your mind isn't in the right place. If you're busy judging what the people around you are wearing, you're mind isn't in the right place.

The window dressing doesn't matter as much as whether or not the window is open.

Atheism isn't a "lie"; it is merely an intellectual position taken when faced with the proposition that a god or gods exist. The position (generally speaking) is as follows: I see no good evidence to believe that a god or gods exists, and so, until such evidence is provided, I will remain unconvinced that a god or gods exists.

Note as well that there are varying posits that one can take, that fall under the umbrella of atheism:
1. I don't know if a god exists, because there is no good reason to believe a god exists.
2. I don't know if a god exists, and I don't believe a god exists, because there is no good reason to believe a god exists.
3. I don't know if a god exists, but I believe that a god does not exist.
4. I know that a god does not exist.

Note that most atheists do NOT subscribe to # 4, because it suffers for the same lack of evidence that the statement "I know a god exists" suffers from.

April 21, 2014 at 10:18 am |

Dyslexic doG

this topic shows what church is for most americans. It's a social club.

Most 21st century americans know in their hearts that this sky daddy figure is not real, but they won't admit that because they would be kicked out of their social club ... so they continue to play along with the foolishness.

Ummm – do you refer to yourself as "The Finisher" because of your ability to finish off your opponents in these conversations with such staggeringly good comebacks? What's next? My dad can whup your dad?

If I wore my best then it would be only what God gave me because when he created mankind he declared it very good. It wasn't until after sin entered the world that we as humans tried improving on the perfection that God created.

You have that backward. Men create gods...thousands of them. Then men can imagine what ever they want for their god, and imagine what their god wants as well.

April 21, 2014 at 9:21 am |

crittermom2

Coming late to the party, but I have to agree that choosing what to wear is about more than simply what makes you comfortable and what you believe makes you look good. There is such a thing as "appropriate to the occasion." This is why most of us have different outfits of varying degrees of formality.

I tend to dress on the casual end for work, but if the big shots are coming from the regional office for a visit, yep, I'm going to dig out the suit. It's a way to mark the importance of the occasion. And, even on casual Fridays, there's no way I'm going to show up at work in yoga pants or shorts. It's just not appropriate.

Everyone has these rules in their own lives, so it's ridiculous to say that you're being superficial or judgemental for having them. Church? I'm not religious, but if I were to go to a church for some reason (wedding, funeral, etc.) I would definitely feel it was an occasion for at least the kind of formality I show on a normal work day ... out of respect.

PS ... Obviously, I'd dress up more than with a work outfit for a wedding. Duh.

April 21, 2014 at 8:59 am |

Sungrazer

I'm curious: Out of respect for what? If a wedding or funeral were held in a basketball gym, would you dress up?

April 21, 2014 at 11:24 am |

crittermom2

Out of respect for the formality and importance of the occasion. And if the wedding were held in a gym, or on a beach, or somewhere else like that, I'd probably ask if I wasn't sure what kind of dress was appropriate. My own wedding was outside, at a rustic lodge, but it was still pretty formal (suits and dresses). Not that I really kept track, that's just what people wore.

As for funerals, well, I've never heard of one in a gym. Around here (rural area), they tend not to be formal. If there's any dress code at all, it would depend on the person and how you knew them ... fellow law enforcement will show up in uniforms, fellow bikers in their leathers. Otherwise, I guess there's just a general feeling of being presentable. Jeans and a flannel shirt are fine, if that's really all you ever wear (true for many here ) ... just make sure they're clean and take off your cap when you come inside!

Again, I'm not religious, so it's not about showing off to God. I also don't think it's necessarily "showing off" to the neighbors, in some kind of superficial way. It's more like, hey, this is important, and I'm going to demonstrate that by taking a little extra effort in my appearance.

If no one really cared about that, then we'd all spend every day in yoga pants and makeup sales would drop to nothing.

Church has always been just as much about community as about individual worship.
The town house of worship was the one place where everyone in a given area would congregate on a regular basis and as such, people dressed to impress.
Dressing in one's Sunday best is as much about keeping up the Joneses as about worship of God.

April 21, 2014 at 8:55 am |

whippstippler7

Hang on! Maybe this dude is onto something. Think about it: an all-powerful, all-knowing god, creator of the universe. Who are we mere mortals to say that this god doesn't care about what we wear? Maybe he does. After all, god apparently cares about what we eat, and when we have s-ex, and who with, and which activities are a big holy no-no.
But then, how do we figure out what pleases god's fashion sense? I'd say yoga pants, but – um – not for everyone. Only the chosen few.

Hey CNN – maybe another hard-hitting story next week about what hair styles pis-s off the lord?

Mr. Blake, let's focus on recruiting more people to attend church instead of criticizing the people who are already there. That community, those people attending, regardless of attire, are your friends in God. The church has enough enemies already. Let's not judge those who are there in church with you. There exists a backwards mentality of which your article seems to fall victim to. The mentality is appearance. Man is superficial, but let's remember that God, and the son of God, are not. We dress to impress in our courts and our workplaces yet these are not holy places, and they are merely man's requests. Christ wore modest clothing. To think that wearing one's nicest and most expensive threads to a house of worship would be recognized over how one conducts their life and how one worships is foolish. Befriend your fellow church-goer, do not judge. They are there with you, and they want to be your friend.

So you believe there is a magical fairy that created the universe and determines how you spend eternity, but you don't think you should bother to dress up when you worship your fantasy? You'd think anyone who actually believed that BS would want to look their best at church.

I'm not a Christian, but I, too understand that the bible doesn't mention anything about making sure one looks his/her best at church. I Timothy Ch 2 instructs man and woman to dress modestly and not to wear fancy hair styles and expensive jewelry.

"8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. 9 I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."

Okay, before anyone calls me out on my error, I see it. I wrote the first paragraph, then pasted the bible quote, then the last sentence. Then I clicked on "Post" and then realized I contradicted myself about how men should dress according to the bible. No need to correct me.

not so odd that it only had instructions for women. The whole bible was written by men, and they treated women as property.
It should not matter at all what one wears to church.

April 21, 2014 at 10:18 am |

burtward

My grandmother worked at a fine clothing store nearly all her working life. It was originally a six store building downtown. Then they built a new mall out in the boonies and downtown died. So, she moved out to the new store at that mall. About a month before Easter, we would go in for a fitting. Money was no object because she was putting them on account and her discount was cost plus 10 percent. A couple weeks before Easter we went back to the store for the final fitting and then walked out with them in a nice suit carrier. On Easter Sunday we put on the new suit and walked into church like we owned it. Today I went to church with a polo and blue Old Navy pants.

[Scientists] see the evidence for creation, and they see it clearly, but peer pressure, financial considerations, political correctness, and a religious commitment to naturalism force them to look the other way and insist they see nothing. And so, the illogical origins myth of modern society perpetuates itself.

April 20, 2014 at 10:06 pm |

observer

justpro86,

Maybe scientists have a tough time accepting that God came from NOTHING and then created EVERYTHING from NOTHING.

justpro: So is that just a pro at lying or just a pro at proving religion can make you stupid or just a pro at being delusional?

April 21, 2014 at 6:24 am |

redzoa

"[Scientists] see the evidence for creation, and they see it clearly, but peer pressure, financial considerations, political correctness, and a religious commitment to naturalism force them to look the other way and insist they see nothing. And so, the illogical origins myth of modern society perpetuates itself."

Every mainstream scientist and every mainstream scientific journal recognizes that it is the paradigm-shifting discovery that launches careers and sells subscriptions. If there were legitimate scientific evidence which truly confounded evolution, the researcher (including "creation scientists") generating this evidence would have their pick of top-tier journals.

One fine example of such research is the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi). Because protein levels could be correlated to the number of RNA transcripts floating around a cell's cytoplasm, researchers intuitively believed that if you add more RNA, you'd see more protein produced. What they found, however, was that adding extra RNA actually reduced the relevant protein levels; in direct contradiction of their intuition. Their research was initially met with significant skepticism, but they continued to generate corroborating results. Sure enough, other researchers using other model systems also began corroborating the results. Further research isolated the particular proteins involved in this hitherto unknown mechanism and a few years later, this research has produced another billion dollar biotech revolution.

This little tale is relevant for 3 reasons: 1) human intuition is always a poor substi-tute for actual evidence; 2) science, unlike religion, is more than willing to embrace a new understanding if the evidence supports the new understanding; and 3) unlike creationism, mainstream science is consistently validated in direct and useful applications.

April 21, 2014 at 7:08 am |

kudlak

Actually, I see being a scientist willing to support creationism as being a rather profitable venture. Christians would pay hardcover-book prices for paperbacks about the scientific "proof" of creationism. I take it as a testament to the professionalism of top rank scientists that only the hacks go down this road.

If a scientist found real evidence of magic or a supernatural force, he/she would jump at the chance to prove it out using the scientific method and publish it. That scientist's name would be in all the history books and would be famous for the rest of time. It would make proving string theory look like leftovers. Saying that the supernatural is being ignored by scientists for political or monetary reasons is fictions. It is being ignored by scientists because there is not even a shadow of empirical evidence on which to base a potentially provable theory. The approach of "we don't know how it works(ed) yet so it must be magic" is not science, it's fantasy.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.